Pocoyo

Story

Pocoyo is a children’s animated series about a little boy, Pocoyo and his friends, Elly the Elephant, Loula the dog and Pato the duck. The characters don’t talk but they have their own noises, and episodes are narrated so the viewers know what is happening. In each episode the friends learn about something new and often Pocoyo and his friends learn about the respect, friendship and protecting the environment.

Why we chose it

Engaging animated stories with a strong and very relevant environmental message and a main character that children can relate to – and also great for learning languages.

Where it came from

Pocoyo was originally in Spanish, but it has both Spanish and English narrators as well as translations into 16 other languages. Stephen Fry was the English narrator for the first two series.

In interviews the creators said they wanted Pocoyo to be a ‘real’ boy who would be unpredictable and independent and laugh and get angry, rather than a typical happy cartoon character. They wanted to create a character who would be influential in children’s development, specifically their children, and that would be valued by the parents too. Using this type of 3D animation was unusual at the time and it made Pocoyo different.

Where it went next

Pocoyo has been shown in over 100 countries. In 2016 it partnered with YouTube Kids and introduced its first female character, Nina.

There are two longer Pocoyo episodes – Pocoyo and the Space Circus (2009) and Pocoyo and the League of Extraordinary Super Friends (2018), as well as nearly 200 regular Pocoyo episodes.

Associated stories

In 2016 a series called Pocoyo Planet was released which was a collection of Pocoyo episodes around a theme, for example one episode is all about music, another all about water. Pocoyo also has his own website where you can find craft activities, download Pocoyo apps, play online games, dance and sing to Pocoyo music videos and even learn English with Pocoyo.

In 2020 Pocoyo started his Forest Project to project the forest of Gran Canaria by planting trees with the help of Pocoyo fans to help the island recover from serious forest fires in 2019. You can buy a tree, or buy merchanside to help support the project. Pocoyo also promotes Earth Hour every year and teaches children about the importance of protecting the environment.